America's Gulf: New Report Says It's Dying

By Stephen Lendman - Posted on 30 December 2010

America's Gulf: New Report Says It's Dying - by Stephen Lendman

Concerned Citizens of Florida.com (CCF) believe efforts must be made now "to address what may very well be the greatest environmental catastrophe of North America in modern history....government (and media) cannot be relied on" for truthful information. As a result, its site is a platform for truth and accuracy on a disaster of such magnitude.

On December 1, CCF published a special Dr. Tom Termotto Gulf disaster report, titled "The Gulf of Mexico is Dying." He's National Coordinator for the Tallahassee, FL-based Gulf Oil Spill Remediation Conference (International Citizens' Initiative). Its disturbing findings are discussed below. He published them so "the world community will come together to further contemplate this dire and demanding predicament." Future generations depend on it.

In an early July statement, he called the Gulf disaster "a tragic violation of the public trust," adding:

"The BP Gulf Oil Spill was created by man; it was not an act of God....It was an utterly manmade event; not an accident....where fate would have everything accidently go wrong that could go possibly so wrong....We wonder out loud about whether it is now time to establish a Regional Citizens' Initiative....to step in where government and industry have completely failed and betrayed the people."

His current assessment is based on seven months Gulf Oil Spill Remediation Conference work, "disseminate(d) with the authority and confidence of those who have thoroughly investigated a crime scene." A compelling body of evidence, including photo-documentaries, portrays the Gulf's true state - what BP, Washington, and major media reports suppressed.

"BP('s) narrative is nothing but a corporate-created illusion - a web of fabrication spun in collaboration with the US Federal Government and (complicit) Mainstream Media. Big Oil, as well as the Military-Industrial Complex, have aided and abetted this whole scheme and info blackout because the very future of the Oil & Gas Industry is at stake, as is the future of the US empire," dependent on vast amounts of energy, mainly oil.

Most important is that planet earth may be at stake, "slowly but surely filling up with (toxic) oil and gas."

Visual evidence and diagrams captured "the true state of the underlying geological formations around the various wells drilled in the Macondo Prospect....there is no dispute (about) the most serious geological changes (caused and continuing) in (Macondo's) region...."

Besides nearly three months of gushing, expect worse conditions ahead. "It's not a pretty picture" when explained fully and accurately. Evidence shows "the geology around the well bore has been blown. This occurred because of:"

-- contiguous drilling "to a salt dome;" and

-- destructive gas explosions, damaging "the integrity of the well casing, cementing, well bore, well head, and foundation around the well head."

As a result, the entire well system was undermined, what official reports never explained. Then, after capping, pressure forced "upsurging hydrocarbons to find weaknesses throughout the greater system." Doing so exposed an array of "compromised, fractured and unsettled geology through which hydrocarbons could travel all the way to the seafloor and into the GOM (Gulf of Mexico)."

According to Geohazards Specialist BK Lim:

"The rock beds in the vicinity of a salt dome (in stratified rocks that often contain oil and gas) are highly fractured and permeable due to stress and deformation which occur as the salt dome thrusted upwards."

Faults are another problem. Depending on the amount of structural damage, their number, location and severity "will become prominently configured into the future stability of the whole region. Larger faults can open up much greater opportunities for the hydrocarbons to (rise) to the seafloor via cracks, crevices, craters and chasms."

(2) "Numerous leaks and seeps within five to ten square miles (of Macondo) with an (unknown) aggregate" daily hydrocarbon outflow.

(3) "Countless gushers and spills, leaks and seeps throughout the Gulf of Mexico" because of many decades of drilling. While the combined outflow is undetermined, it's likely to be significant, ensuring the Gulf's "slow and steady demise...."

The Gulf of Mexico is dying, but government and industry officials don't report it. Moreover, what happens there affects adjacent waters, including the Atlantic Ocean and beyond. All planetary waters are interconnected and potentially at risk, meaning the entire global ecosystem is endangered.

Methane is another problem. It's very corrosive when mixed with saltwater and mud. High pressure forces it to through seafloor cracks and crevices, "thereby creating a predicament that no science, technology or equipment can remedy."

Macondo is only one project. Many others exist globally "causing innumerable 'micro-displacements' " that cumulatively create a hazardous macro-event. The most serious Gulf issue relates to the amount and depth of drilling. "Of course, with greater depths come much greater risks," as modern technology and equipment haven't kept up with potential hazards.

Gulf Seabed May Be in Seismic Danger Zone

Decades of multiple seabed fracturing and fissuring created a "conducive environment for HUGE unintended consequences." Unless further exploration is halted, "coastal communities (and global waters) will remain in a very precarious situation." Drilling elsewhere compounds the problem. Planet Earth's future is at stake as well as humanity and other animal and vegetable life.

Addendum

The following additional problems are explained:

(1) "The wanton and indiscriminate use of (Corexit dispersant) turned an extremely serious regional disaster into an unmitigated global" one. Mixed with oil caused "fundamentally altered" Gulf waters. "Many are concerned that a tipping point has already arrived and that this sea change will irrevocably transform a way of life" negatively.

(2) "The deeper the geological source of hydrocarbons, the more radioactive isotopes" enter oil and gas. Big Oil keeps it secret. "So secret in fact that, if this were to get out, this single scientific fact would seal the fate of the entire industry." Moreover, it confirms the (non-biological) abiotic and (non-biochemical) abiogenic origin of oil and gas, facts counter to Peak Oil theory. Macondo is rumored to have a "reservoir of abiotic oil the size of Mount Everest." Tapping it safely, however, is another matter.

A Final Comment

On July 1, Concerned Citizens of Florida headlined, "They've Literally Punched A Hole Into Hell: We Need A Crash Alternative Energy Program Now, Assuming We Even Survive," saying:

No "verbal hyperbole" can explain "the magnitude of (Macondo's) environmental catastrophe. It is nothing short of an Armageddon of Oil." Fossil fuels and nuclear power are killing the planet. Unless crash alternatives are undertaken and accelerated, deciding later may not matter. Macondo was a defining moment. Something now must be done "to save our country and world." Tomorrow is too late.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

What the video illustrates is literally [frightening]. It shows a huge, [skyrocket] increase in the number of offshore oil rigs off of the coasts of Texas, Miss., La. and Alabama, though relatively little directly off of Ala's coastline. Most rigs are off of the coastlines of the first three of those states and La. is the one with the very most. It's a massive [invasion] of or by oil exploiters. With all of the dots showing where the rigs are roughly located, a viewer can wonder if there's any open water left; or any "non-rigged" area, location left.

But, and as I posted for a comment on that video, it should include information or statistics about the number of offshore rigs that have had environmentally damaging accidents and so-called accidents, or which have leaked considerable amounts of oil, for while the video is scary, if the Deep Horizon is the only example of offshore rigs in the Gulf of Mexico seriously damaging the Gulf environment, then one interpretation many people will be able to derive from the video is that offshore oil drilling is usually not dangerous. There isn't a response, yet, to my comment on the video and I hope someone does reply with useful information. I'm against offshore oil drilling, so the more hard statistics there are for supporting the end of such drilling, the more activists will be armed with supporting arguments.

One bad accident out of MANY rigs surely does not provide a sufficient argument to be able to get Washington to force an end to such drilling operations.

A question that the video brought back to mind is what the offshore oil rig situation is off of the northern coast of South America, but the video also brings the same question to mind with respect to Mexico. We see Mexico and there are no offshore oil rigs shown off of the coastline, except for two rigs off of the far northeastern tip of the country, where the rigs evidently are simultaneously located off of that tip of Mexico and the far southeastern tip of Texas. The rest of the Mexican coastline has no offshore oil rigs, based on the video. I immediately noticed that, but the question of the waters off of northern So. America is one that's been in mind since the end of last April when I started learning about the catastrophe caused with the so-called or sort of accident of the Deepwater Horizon rig.

No articles I've read about that have mentioned anything about offshore oil rigs located off of the northern coastline of So. America, so I wonder if there are any located there. None of the articles mentioned anything about the killing of the Gulf waters caused by the Deepwater Horizon accident and non-accident endangering the southern waters of the Gulf and, therefore, the waters near the coast of northern So. America. The articles I've read only state that the Gulf is poisoned over a very large or huge area off of the southern coast of the US and that this is likely, if not surely, going to also affect waters off of the eastern coasts of the US and Canada, reaching that far north. Articles also said that oceans of the whole planet will be affected. But there's been nothing said or written in any specific terms about the waters off of the northern coastline of SA, or off the Gulf coast of Mexico.

I'd imagine that the whole Gulf is going to end up being poisoned and this might not be expected by the scientific or environmental experts. However, I'm curious about whether there are offshore oil rig operations off of the northern coast of SA, the Gulf coast of Mexico, how many of these rigs exist, how many of them are operational, and whether they are also contributing to the poisoning of the Gulf of Mexico. Sometimes it's fitting to say, "The more, the merrier"; but that's definitely [not] fitting this time or in this case.

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